The present invention relates generally to a device for applying clips to close pasty filling within fibrous, collagen, or synthetic casings. The invention relates more specifically to a device for applying a single clip at a first end of a sausage and applying two clips at a second end of a sausage.
Automated clippers are used in the preparation of for example, sausages. A pasty mixture of meat and spices is mixed in a mixer and pumped to a filling machine. In some applications, flat stock is turned over a plow and formed into a tubular casing into which the pasty mixture is extruded. In other applications, casing that is manufactured as a tube or natural tubular casing is shirred onto a horn and the pasty mixture is extruded through the horn and into the casing. In either of these types of applications, the filled tube or casing is also enclosed in netting.
The filled casing, with or without netting, is presented to a double clipper, such as an FCA Automatic Double-Clipper manufactured by Precitec, Inc. of Mundelein, Ill., United States. A pair of irises close over the filled casing, creating a void neck between the irises. The double-clipper has two reels of clips feeding two rails that deliver clips to the clipping area. The neck is placed over two dies and two punches descend to apply two clips to close the neck. A knife cuts the casing between the two clips. The downstream clip is the end of a completed sausage; the upstream clip is the beginning of a new sausage.
In some applications, a string or a loop is captured in one of the clips applied to the sausage. The string or loop is used to hang the sausage in a smokehouse for further processing. Since the sausages hang vertically in the smokehouse, there is more pressure on the clip at the lower end of the sausage, because of the weight of the filling, than on the clip at the upper end of the sausage. Both clips must hold a tight seal on the casing to prevent leakage of contents of the sausage and to prevent contamination. A prior-art solution applies two clips at an end of the sausage. To do so, one clipper of the double clipper fired twice. Since a clipper, after applying a first clip, must retract the punch and get ready to apply the next clip, applying two clips to an end of a sausage causes delays in processing of manufactured sausages.
The present invention addresses some of the deficiencies of the prior art.